Friday, January 28, 2011

Battle Report: the Desecration of Achillus Prime

The Blood Angel librarian, Brother Kinian, surveyed the troops gathered before him in the holding bay of their thunderhawk transport. Respect and raw faith in his command were reflected in the eyes of this battle hardened detachment who hung on his every word. He began to speak in the slow and heavy cadence born of centuries of bloodshed.

"The Imperial Shrine on Achillus Prime had long been a haven for the righteous who basked in the warming light of his Emperor's grace. Lovingly defending the holy sanctuary with their lives, the platoon of Crimson Fists stationed there affectionately termed the magnificent edifice the Crystal Palace. It had been carved out of the very ice that encased Achillus Prime year round, and glittered like a thousand stars in the night. Faith itself was embodied in the 31,212 transparent steps that wound up through the multiple spires. Due to superior Imperial engineering, when the twin suns Chlorus and Orphelia blazed bright in the afternoon sky, their blades of light were skillfully reflected upon the walls, thus illuminating the interior cloisters down to the deepest recesses of the sanctum below. One could feel nothing but awe and admiration in the presence of this mastery of the elements, were one not carrying a baseness in one's heart."

"As beautiful as Achilles Prime had been, its defilement was equally swift and merciless. Enacted in the darkness of night, the attack had been executed by a massive detachment of the damned and plague ridden Death Guard. They swept through the shrine in a merciless wave, butchering the overwhelmed defenders like cattle. Traitors amidst the faithful opened the gates to them permitting them uncontested entrance into the shrine. Their reward was to be disembowelled next to their brethren and hung from the parapets. The horror did not end there, however."

"This intel came at a terrible price. A small contingent of Crimson Fists escaped, or so they believed. They were in fact infected and intentionally released. The vessel they had secured had been sabotaged and all communications equipment had been removed. Their only recourse was to go in person to a friendly planet. They sped directly to the forgeworld Karthus in the hopes of securing aid, yet their arrival permitted a virus to creep rapidly into the population. Within days Karthus was a ghost world."

"I know you all want vengeance but our mission is twofold. When the shrine was first assaulted, the Crimson Fists tried to keep the ancient artefact, the Libram of Eternal Darkness, from falling into the hands of the blasphemers. They sped forth from the shrine in a stormraven but it was shot down a few kilometers from the entry gates. It is believed the libram is still secure in its case along with the darklight lens required ro read the ancient text. Furthermore the stormraven was carrying extensive video data recording the initial stages of the assault along with what was recorded in its own black box. These will be invaluable in understanding Death Guard tactics and will help prevent future worlds from falling in similar fashion to Achillus Prime. They must be recovered. Secondly, the architect of these travesties is well known to the Imperium. He is responsible for the ruination of more than just Karthus and Achillus Prime."

"Bielus is his name; Bielus the damned; Bielus the cursed; Bielus the afflicted. Whatever moniker one deigns to bestow on this vile creature, the results of his visitation are always the same: bloodshed, mayhem, and then disease & death. A hideous daemon prince befouled by the gifts of the plague master himself, Bielus stands a full three times the size of the average marine with fetid wings that could overshadow this detachment. Theories abound as to his history, that perhaps he was once a Crimson Fist himself, that he is fuelled by jealousy and rage at being cast out of the order, but this is all hearsay. Ultimately idle speculation is of no concern to us. We have the honour and the opportunity of serving our Emperor as we have been trained. We will face Bielus within the hour, and make him pay for his crimes against the Imperium!"

The detachment cheered and stamped their booted feet in bloodlusting unison. Brother Kinian bowed his head signaling to the men they must now be still and led the troops in prayer. He knew full well that regardless of the results of their mission, they would all need to be exterminated for having been exposed to the taint of Nurgle's diseased followers.

The game was 1850 points, Seize Ground (3 objectives), Dawn of War. We used my snow table with the optional sandstorm rules (i.e. temperamental area terrain). I made sure the 3 objectives were stuck closely together. They formed a nice line.

The scouts positioned themselves amidst the crumbling mortar of the blasted ruins. The still wee hours of the morning necessitated night vision goggles for the infiltrators to accomplish their task, a peremptory perimeter scan. Private Hollinger felt his breath catch in his throat as something huge, blacker than the darkness that shadowed it, moved as an absence of light. He marked it through his scope and whispered into his comlink, "Contact."

My adversary got the initiative. He deployed some scouts and half of a tactical squad sporting a plasma cannon (happy, happy; joy, joy), and I put down two squads of plague marines in rhinos and my Daemon Prince. We both dislike Dawn of War but I think we rolled it twice so finally we resigned ourselves to the game.

As the Blood Angels picked their way cautiously through the the dessicated and frozen riverbed, their librarian cautioned everyone to stay focused on the primary mission, the recovery of the video data and black box.

"You all want the glory of slaying the beast. However, this is a task we must accomplish together. Do not weaken the mettle of your brothers by allowing pride to dictate your movements. If one link fails, you could take us all with you. You shall be of one mind and one fist."

His devastators had to walk on so that clipped one turn of abuse (-12 shots from their missile launchers). His assault squad moved up as well along the trench. Everything else just settled in for the turn.

Bielus stumbled forward, his joints aching and a cacophany of voices screaming in his head. He did not know why he was being willed forward into this dead zone nor did he care. Wracked by lancing pains throughout his shoulders as he beat his wings, he carried on into the night, half flying, half walking. Shells exploded lighting up the night and humanoid shapes in the distance. He now knew his purpose. His only desire was to die and failing that, he would crush the life out of whoever crossed him.

The 1st devastator squad, now entrenched comfortably in the cover of the riverbed, marked their target. As the rays of the morning sun began to glitter across the icy landscape, 4 missiles screamed across the battlefield and slammed into the mechanical horror that was trying to lumber and lurch towards them. It paused, shuddered, and then exploded in hundreds of pieces of shrapnel. Their battle brothers were fortunate as well, crippling the second mechanical monstrosity, a multi-armed defiler. Now it could only claw uselessly at the air although it still had its cannon.

Bucky got aced by the missile launchers, Archibald the defiler was immobilized, and a rhino was popped. It looked like it was going to be another one of those games (where I get annihilated trying to footslog my way to my adversary). However, then I got a nice gift. His assault squad attacked my daemon prince. It was like Christmas morning for me. He put some wounds on me but now they were tied up.

The assault squad ambushed Bielus in the ruins where he was hiding. Clouded by dreams of glory in their heads, they threw caution to the wind and dove headlong into the fray. Too late they realised their mistake. Bielus went into a frenzy, tearing heads from shoulders and skewering their ragdoll bodies before flinging them into the air. The stunned squad was badly crippled in seconds although they tried to replicate with their own weapons.

My plague marines in their land raider transport rushed forward and spilled out on the assault. No, they did not get to soften up the target with their usual assault weapon combo but they did get the charge. It was not long before the assault squad was whittled down to one brave lad. Just enough to protect my prince and plague marines in assault for another turn. My Chosen with flamers came in as well but the Greater Daemon and the 2nd melta squad got stage fright. This was perfect as it meant my Greater Daemon would deploy right in those pesky devastators (evil laughter).

The end came quickly for the assault marines when an ancient, rusted and corroded land raider crashed into the ruins and unleashed a putrid squad of plague marines into their numbers. The captain was the last to fall, the stench of the grave his only companion into the afterlife.

My footslogging flamer plague marines took a few hits and the Chosen squad's rhino was wrecked. However, despite much abuse, they survived! As for brave assault squad lad, he met the business end of my daemon prince's scythe.

Bielus came leaping out of the ruins maddened by his wounds and the taste of human blood on his fangs. The devastators holed up in the trench dropped their heavy weapons in preparation for the ensuing fight knowing full well these would be their final moments. "May we die gloriously!" they imperiously howled in unison as Bielus crashed into their ranks.

My Greater Daemon and Chosen melta squad were still too shy to join the fight so my daemon prince leapt into the trench as my Chosen squad tied up the devastator squad hiding there. My plague marines leapt back into the land raider and rolled forward with the melta squad onto the first objective.

Kinian roared at the gun teams in his land raider, "Fire on that tank." He wasn't expecting much, but the shot smashed through the cracking, busted armour on the chassis of the plague marines' land raider and ploughed into critical components of the engine. Seconds later the battlefield was rocked with yet another explosion.

The Chosen champion, Azibuhl the sadist, ripped the helmet off his foe and emptied the chamber of his bolt pistol in his face. He liked the mortal terror he saw in his victim's eyes. Then he faltered, feeling a strange sensation, something like intense indigestion erupting suddenly in his guts. Looking down he noticed someone had painted a strange rune on the breastplate of his armour. "I hate you guys..." he managed to moan before his body was ripped apart by the demon clambering out of his skin.

Archibald was pleased with recent developments. He could choose new targets as his previous devastator squad target had been happily mutilated by my daemon prince. Also the Chosen melta squad finally decided to show up as did the Greater Daemon. I dropped the daemon in with the prince to support the Chosen flamer squad and moved the newly arrived melta squad into position to tie up the third objective in the following turn. The prince and co. happily butchered the remnants of devastator squad 2. The game however came down to a relatively risky maneouvre I attempted. I realised all of my plague marines were all together in one place, close enough to rush the land raider as a group. I figured if I had any chance at all to wreck the land raider and what was inside, it was there and then. I ran every last plague marine forward and fired three meltas at the tank. 2 penetrations, and... 2 2's. My gambit failed and my whole troop allotment for the game was now vulnerable to being shot to bits and then charged. Ah well, sh** happens.

Kinian stepped forth from his transport and calmly invoked the blood lance into the mass of corrupted and plague ridden marines that clambered to overwhelm his land raider. Although hideous to look at, they fell like so many dominoes, the glory of the Emperor's light sweeping them aside with his eminence. Kinian felt emboldened and rushed forward, but he got too close to the seething mass. The plague champion, Khalus the Thorn, unseen by mortal eyes in over three centuries, reached out and seized Kinian's head with his powerfist. His skull cracked like an egg as his brains oozed out over Khalus' mechanical knuckles. Kinian was granted his deliverance.

This is the sad, weepy, dreary part of this battle report. My lads were butchered like cattle, with the librarian laying on the pain, taking out five plague marines in one shot single-handedly. I even forgot my blight grenades which might have stemmed a bit of the carnage. Ah well, sh** happens. To add insult to injury, the land raider popped off another lascannon round and buried the daemon prince. I did manage to bury the librarian with my powerfist at least. The fight with the assault squad against my Chosen looked like it was going to be a tarpit. We just kept hitting aimlessly and doing no damage to each other.

Bielus faltered and fell to one knee. There was a gaping hole that went straight through his spine and out his rib cage. It was only sheer force of will that kept him erect as his skeleton failed. "Please," he silently prayed to Father Nurgle, "let me die," and he tumbled in a crumpled heap in the riverbed.

I was left with the desperate possibility of a tie. It was an emotional decision though since it meant I would have to ignore the juicy devastator squad #3 and run my Greater Daemon and Chosen flamer dudes over to the land raider in order to contest objective 2. It was a long shot because I was contesting objective 1 with an immobilized rhino, and my Chosen melta squad would need to hack their way through the other assault squad if they were to contest objective 3. Finally in order to steal one more objective from my adversary, I decided to run my greater daemon towards the tank sitting on top of objective 2. In retrospect, it would have been far more emotionally satisfying to butcher the 3rd devastator squad. Archibald spooked the tactical squad on objective 3 and sent them running. My Chosen also suddenly got their teeth and killed 3-4 assault marines drastically turning the tide of the fight. I was mildly hopeful.

The tactical squad collected the black box and loaded it in the raider just as a skeletal daemon came running towards the tank. The raider shook with the blows but the armour held. The unit inside relayed the message to central command, "The package is secure." Moments later, the soldiers from the unit heard the hiss of gas inside the vehicle, and then in a blinding flash, they were incinerated.

Did I even get the emotional satisfaction of busting open the land laider on objective 2? Nope. My Greater Daemon attacked with six attacks on the charge and hit once with no penetration. Ah well, sh** happens. Final score, 2-0 for the Blood Angels.

I thought I played pretty well but I made several careless errors during the game. The first one was forgetting to blow smoke on the rhino of my first Chosen squad. My adversary was kind enough to let me do it retroactively but it was still a gaff on my part. The second error was forgetting to blow smoke again on my Land Raider. That very well probably cost me the tank. My third error was forgetting my blight grenades. I'm paying a premium for cult troops. Forgetting their added bonuses is shooting myself in the foot. That said, I think I managed to make my adversary sweat a bit, which was nice because he usually beats me with ease (see here). Other problems with my strategy was that I was always reacting to my opponents moves. He attacked me and then I responded. Lastly, I focused heavily on his non-troop choices.

Herein is the crux of the problem I have when facing this particular adversary, however. Getting at the heart of his army is difficult because he surrounds himself in layers. I face the first layer right away with the devastators. Then I face the second layer with his assault troops. Then, once those have worn me down, I might get a crack at the HQ and troops, but I will be so badly weakened at this point, it's a hopeless cause.

In this game, I had no choice but to deal with his assault troops, and if I had not attacked his devastators, they probably would have taken me down anyways. Had I smashed the land raider with a more concerted assault (ie. including a daemon or daemon prince in the mix) things might have gone differently but I'm not sure as his HQ was tough.

The Thunderhawk surgically executed anything left alive on the battlefield, Blood Angel and Plague Marine alike. They could take no chances with a virus spreading. Then the land raider was bathed in cleansing flames until the metal glowed a molten red. Sterilization complete, there remained only the final step of collecting the vehicle in the hull.

Bielus watched as the great ship took off into the afternoon sky. His bleeding had stopped and his wounds had cauterized. Even his spine was being rebuilt out of fungal growths that were hardening in place. He would not die today. Nurgle had no intention of releasing his favourite son.